Key Democrat calls for Paterson to drop re-election bid

The Harlem state senator who holds David Paterson's old seat told POLITICO this morning that the embattled governor should not seek reelection, bringing down Paterson's last wall of political defense.

"In the context of all that's going on, as reported in the Times, I don't think that the governor should be running for reelection," said tate Sen. Bill Perkins, an early Obama backer who is the first prominent African-American official to call for Paterson to end his bid, in an interview. New York's black Democrats had been reluctant to publicly voice their private skepticism of New York's first black governor, but Perkins said the "disturbing" report that the governor had interfered in an aide's domestic violence case forced his hand, and that he would call Paterson to tell him today.

"To avoid it is almost to be complicit with it," he said. "The involvement of the state police seems to be out of order, the phone call to the victim the night before is of great concern. The domestic violence is of great concern," he said.

"I’m not jumping to conclusions about anybody’s guilt, but I must say it’s a very complicated situaion that doesn’t look good, to say the least," Perkins said. "There are serious violations here of procedures and practices at stake."

Perkins said it was "premature" to discuss who should represent Democrats in November. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the presumed nominee. And he said the decision to break ranks and call for the end of Paterson's campaign had been "very difficult."

"I sit in the seat that he governor sat in, I live in the neighborhood the governor lives in," Perkins said. "This is one of the most heart-wrenching decisions in my life."

Rep. Steve Israel made a similar call earlier today, and Perkins' words may open a floodgate of uneasy Democrats.